Monday, October 31, 2011

On Friday, the law firm of Steven J. Baum threw a Halloween party. The firm, which is located near Buffalo, is what is commonly referred to as a “foreclosure mill” firm, meaning it represents banks and mortgage servicers as they attempt to foreclose on homeowners and evict them from their homes. Steven J. Baum is, in fact, the largest such firm in New York; it represents virtually all the giant mortgage lenders, including Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo.

In other words, they are literally the devil's advocates.

Fuck that, even I wouldn't get in bed with B of A!

. . . a former employee of Steven J. Baum recently sent me snapshots of last year’s party. In an e-mail, she said that she wanted me to see them because they showed an appalling lack of compassion toward the homeowners — invariably poor and down on their luck — that the Baum firm had brought foreclosure proceedings against.

two Baum employees are dressed like homeless people. One is holding a bottle of liquor. The other has a sign around her neck that reads: “3rd party squatter. I lost my home and I was never served.” My source said that “I was never served” is meant to mock “the typical excuse” of the homeowner trying to evade a foreclosure proceeding.

A corner of the Baum office was decorated to look like a row of foreclosed homes.

When I called a press spokesman for Steven J. Baum to ask about the photographs, he sent me a statement a few hours later. “It has been suggested that some employees dress in ... attire that mocks or attempts to belittle the plight of those who have lost their homes,” the statement read. “Nothing could be further from the truth.” It described this column as “another attempt by The New York Times to attack our firm and our work.”

Oh, hey Steven J. Baum, it may look like this machine is designed to separate you from your head, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Friday, October 28, 2011

And he has a plan to deal with illegal immigration. Yes of course it's based on the Third Reich's "Final Solution," what else would you expect?

I don't know anything about this guy, maybe it's a weird joke, a performance art piece, whatever, but so is Herman Cain, and he's 10 points ahead of Romney!
But don't worry, he's not a racist. In fact, he's sick of you Nigras callin' him a racist. And he's not too crazy 'bout them Hispanics either. And it's totally not racist to say that the government doesn't work 'cuz there's too many blacks in there?
And is it racist to ask about the billions of dollars in reparations paid to "the blacks?" No, it's mainly just insane to believe that reparations have been paid.

Wall Street Firms Spy on Protestors in Tax-Funded Center

In correspondence from 2005 that rests quietly in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s archives, NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly promised Edward Forst, a Goldman Sachs’ Executive Vice President at the time, that the NYPD “is committed to the development and implementation of a comprehensive security plan for Lower Manhattan…One component of the plan will be a centralized coordination center that will provide space for full-time, on site representation from Goldman Sachs and other stakeholders.”

So, if you are in Lower Manhattan, and you see one of those security surveilence cameras, you might assume that on the other end of that camera is the New York City Police Department, looking for lawbreakers. And you'd be half right, because along with the cops, there are Goldman Sachs representatives spying on you as well.

The surveillance plan became known as the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative and the facility was eventually dubbed the Lower Manhattan Security Coordination Center. It operates round-the-clock. Under the imprimatur of the largest police department in the United States, 2,000 private spy cameras owned by Wall Street firms, together with approximately 1,000 more owned by the NYPD, are relaying live video feeds of people on the streets in lower Manhattan to the center.

Cooperation between law enforcement and corporate security? That can't be good.
Some folks might think that this sort of public/private partnership sounds nice, but as Benito Mussolini famously said:

“Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power”

And if this Lower Manhattan Security Coordination Center is not a perfect example of a merger of state and corporate power, I don't know what is.